drove e-tron in Munich
02-20-2019, 05:49 AM
#1
AudiWorld Member
Thread Starter
drove e-tron in Munich
I had a couple of hours available at the airport so I was able to drive a car for ~1h. The things I tried and found that perhaps other "professional" reviewers have not mentioned:
1. at the suggestion of my minder/passenger, I tried some very hard braking from ~80km/h. Really amazing. It turns out that because of the added recuperative braking feature, braking distances are lower than those from conventional disc braking alone. They estimate that recuperative braking will be used for 95% of all braking needs (up to 0.3g). They estimate that disc brake pads and discs will last for 100,000+ miles.
2. He encouraged me to try self-driving at highway speeds ~100km/h - after engaging adaptive cruise control - no hand or foot input. Works great, very smooth. He also suggested i simulate a heart attack - not putting my hand on the steering wheel when requested by the car. Car sounds various alarms, then tightens the seat belt, puts on flasher and slows down. Finally, I put my hand on the steering wheel and off we went.
3. He insisted I try some starts in S mode (quiet country road) and indeed acceleration from a dead stop is impressive, instantaneous and extremely linear. He said battery cooling ensures that one can do this repeatedly.
4. My minder said that when batteries get below 80% capacity they will be deemed defective and exchanged (8yr, 100,000mile warranty) He thought that perhaps Audi will have an exchange program in ~4 years for higher capacity batteries for those wanting a longer range as they are built in a very modular way. (no idea about the cost or trade-off - would you pay $10k? for 50%? increase in range?)
5. It was mentioned several times that the plan was/is to outdo Tesla, as Tesla is their main competitor in the EV market.
6. I found the car handled very well on the on and off ramps - clearly, it is not a 2 seater, but it did not feel like a nearly 6000lb SUV. (700kg battery under your feet)
7. Of course, the car is super quiet around town and during hard acceleration and seems pretty conventional at highway speeds.
8. My minder also thought that the all-wheel drive is superb in this car as traction is sampled and adjusted at 1000Hz eliminating any possible wheel slippage. I think that driving/accelerating in tight on/off ramps felt a bit different from the conventional AWD Audis. (no under/oversteer, very precise and predictable at my speed). Perhaps better drivers and/or more careful observations would shed more light on this. I think this is worth comparing to regular AWD.
Needless to say, I was impressed. We also drove up and down the steep ramps - impressive and probably very similar to the Q7/Q8. I like the car and if you drive an Audi this car will be very familiar to you. As this would not be our only car, range (perhaps the largest drawback of the car) would not be of great concern - especially with more high-speed charging stations being available.
1. at the suggestion of my minder/passenger, I tried some very hard braking from ~80km/h. Really amazing. It turns out that because of the added recuperative braking feature, braking distances are lower than those from conventional disc braking alone. They estimate that recuperative braking will be used for 95% of all braking needs (up to 0.3g). They estimate that disc brake pads and discs will last for 100,000+ miles.
2. He encouraged me to try self-driving at highway speeds ~100km/h - after engaging adaptive cruise control - no hand or foot input. Works great, very smooth. He also suggested i simulate a heart attack - not putting my hand on the steering wheel when requested by the car. Car sounds various alarms, then tightens the seat belt, puts on flasher and slows down. Finally, I put my hand on the steering wheel and off we went.
3. He insisted I try some starts in S mode (quiet country road) and indeed acceleration from a dead stop is impressive, instantaneous and extremely linear. He said battery cooling ensures that one can do this repeatedly.
4. My minder said that when batteries get below 80% capacity they will be deemed defective and exchanged (8yr, 100,000mile warranty) He thought that perhaps Audi will have an exchange program in ~4 years for higher capacity batteries for those wanting a longer range as they are built in a very modular way. (no idea about the cost or trade-off - would you pay $10k? for 50%? increase in range?)
5. It was mentioned several times that the plan was/is to outdo Tesla, as Tesla is their main competitor in the EV market.
6. I found the car handled very well on the on and off ramps - clearly, it is not a 2 seater, but it did not feel like a nearly 6000lb SUV. (700kg battery under your feet)
7. Of course, the car is super quiet around town and during hard acceleration and seems pretty conventional at highway speeds.
8. My minder also thought that the all-wheel drive is superb in this car as traction is sampled and adjusted at 1000Hz eliminating any possible wheel slippage. I think that driving/accelerating in tight on/off ramps felt a bit different from the conventional AWD Audis. (no under/oversteer, very precise and predictable at my speed). Perhaps better drivers and/or more careful observations would shed more light on this. I think this is worth comparing to regular AWD.
Needless to say, I was impressed. We also drove up and down the steep ramps - impressive and probably very similar to the Q7/Q8. I like the car and if you drive an Audi this car will be very familiar to you. As this would not be our only car, range (perhaps the largest drawback of the car) would not be of great concern - especially with more high-speed charging stations being available.
02-20-2019, 07:03 AM
#3
AudiWorld Member
I had a couple of hours available at the airport so I was able to drive a car for ~1h. The things I tried and found that perhaps other "professional" reviewers have not mentioned:
1. at the suggestion of my minder/passenger, I tried some very hard braking from ~80km/h. Really amazing. It turns out that because of the added recuperative braking feature, braking distances are lower than those from conventional disc braking alone. They estimate that recuperative braking will be used for 95% of all braking needs (up to 0.3g). They estimate that disc brake pads and discs will last for 100,000+ miles.
2. He encouraged me to try self-driving at highway speeds ~100km/h - after engaging adaptive cruise control - no hand or foot input. Works great, very smooth. He also suggested i simulate a heart attack - not putting my hand on the steering wheel when requested by the car. Car sounds various alarms, then tightens the seat belt, puts on flasher and slows down. Finally, I put my hand on the steering wheel and off we went.
3. He insisted I try some starts in S mode (quiet country road) and indeed acceleration from a dead stop is impressive, instantaneous and extremely linear. He said battery cooling ensures that one can do this repeatedly.
4. My minder said that when batteries get below 80% capacity they will be deemed defective and exchanged (8yr, 100,000mile warranty) He thought that perhaps Audi will have an exchange program in ~4 years for higher capacity batteries for those wanting a longer range as they are built in a very modular way. (no idea about the cost or trade-off - would you pay $10k? for 50%? increase in range?)
5. It was mentioned several times that the plan was/is to outdo Tesla, as Tesla is their main competitor in the EV market.
6. I found the car handled very well on the on and off ramps - clearly, it is not a 2 seater, but it did not feel like a nearly 6000lb SUV. (700kg battery under your feet)
7. Of course, the car is super quiet around town and during hard acceleration and seems pretty conventional at highway speeds.
8. My minder also thought that the all-wheel drive is superb in this car as traction is sampled and adjusted at 1000Hz eliminating any possible wheel slippage. I think that driving/accelerating in tight on/off ramps felt a bit different from the conventional AWD Audis. (no under/oversteer, very precise and predictable at my speed). Perhaps better drivers and/or more careful observations would shed more light on this. I think this is worth comparing to regular AWD.
Needless to say, I was impressed. We also drove up and down the steep ramps - impressive and probably very similar to the Q7/Q8. I like the car and if you drive an Audi this car will be very familiar to you. As this would not be our only car, range (perhaps the largest drawback of the car) would not be of great concern - especially with more high-speed charging stations being available.
1. at the suggestion of my minder/passenger, I tried some very hard braking from ~80km/h. Really amazing. It turns out that because of the added recuperative braking feature, braking distances are lower than those from conventional disc braking alone. They estimate that recuperative braking will be used for 95% of all braking needs (up to 0.3g). They estimate that disc brake pads and discs will last for 100,000+ miles.
2. He encouraged me to try self-driving at highway speeds ~100km/h - after engaging adaptive cruise control - no hand or foot input. Works great, very smooth. He also suggested i simulate a heart attack - not putting my hand on the steering wheel when requested by the car. Car sounds various alarms, then tightens the seat belt, puts on flasher and slows down. Finally, I put my hand on the steering wheel and off we went.
3. He insisted I try some starts in S mode (quiet country road) and indeed acceleration from a dead stop is impressive, instantaneous and extremely linear. He said battery cooling ensures that one can do this repeatedly.
4. My minder said that when batteries get below 80% capacity they will be deemed defective and exchanged (8yr, 100,000mile warranty) He thought that perhaps Audi will have an exchange program in ~4 years for higher capacity batteries for those wanting a longer range as they are built in a very modular way. (no idea about the cost or trade-off - would you pay $10k? for 50%? increase in range?)
5. It was mentioned several times that the plan was/is to outdo Tesla, as Tesla is their main competitor in the EV market.
6. I found the car handled very well on the on and off ramps - clearly, it is not a 2 seater, but it did not feel like a nearly 6000lb SUV. (700kg battery under your feet)
7. Of course, the car is super quiet around town and during hard acceleration and seems pretty conventional at highway speeds.
8. My minder also thought that the all-wheel drive is superb in this car as traction is sampled and adjusted at 1000Hz eliminating any possible wheel slippage. I think that driving/accelerating in tight on/off ramps felt a bit different from the conventional AWD Audis. (no under/oversteer, very precise and predictable at my speed). Perhaps better drivers and/or more careful observations would shed more light on this. I think this is worth comparing to regular AWD.
Needless to say, I was impressed. We also drove up and down the steep ramps - impressive and probably very similar to the Q7/Q8. I like the car and if you drive an Audi this car will be very familiar to you. As this would not be our only car, range (perhaps the largest drawback of the car) would not be of great concern - especially with more high-speed charging stations being available.
02-20-2019, 07:19 AM
#4
2. He encouraged me to try self-driving at highway speeds ~100km/h - after engaging adaptive cruise control - no hand or foot input. Works great, very smooth. He also suggested i simulate a heart attack - not putting my hand on the steering wheel when requested by the car. Car sounds various alarms, then tightens the seat belt, puts on flasher and slows down. Finally, I put my hand on the steering wheel and off we went.
Are you able to comment on how this system compares to Tesla Autopilot? Audi has a separate system (piloted driving) for more Autopilot type usage. What are the limitations of the system used in e-tron?
02-20-2019, 07:31 AM
#5
AudiWorld Member
Bjorn Nyland already posted videos about this... It works quite well, and has nice safety features. Less capable, but much less buggy than Tesla autopilot.
02-20-2019, 08:09 AM
#6
AudiWorld Member
Thread Starter
(I am told by some " technical experts" that the Cadilac system is extremely good as it relies on and is augmented by very accurate map data.)
02-22-2019, 12:04 PM
#7
AudiWorld Senior Member
I didn't understand that the US-based e-tron would have any more self-driving functionality than my car. Can you elaborate on what the "autopilot type system" is like in the USA version?
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02-22-2019, 03:29 PM
#8
AudiWorld Senior Member
I'm home sick, so nothing but time on my hands. Found this today. Lots of stuff I didn't know. Press release style, so nothing but good news! But plenty of detail on all systems etc.
Download Press Information
Download Press Information
02-22-2019, 05:06 PM
#9
AudiWorld Member
Thread Starter
During my test drive, I simply followed the direction of the Audi guy. He suggested I pull on the small left lower lever towards me (which i believe is the adaptive cruise control + lane assist) and the car smoothly drove in the center of our lane and kept a fixed distance from the car in front. As I mentioned in my first post, at one point it asked me to put the hands on the steering wheel - which i did not do, simulating a "heart attack". Not sure why it requested putting the hands on the wheel. Please check out the previous post on this thread where I believe the driver assist system is explained.
02-22-2019, 05:27 PM
#10
The descriptions of the e-tron ACC and lane assist make it sound like Autopilot 1, which was a Mobileye system (perhaps e-tron uses a Mobileye system) that uses a camera and a radar. It may not be as future upgradable as the Autopilot 2/2.5 hardware but this should meet my expectations.